Software giant Microsoft is forbidding its OEM chums from flogging hardware with its ancient Windows 7 and awful Windows 8.1 under the bonnet.

While Vole pulled the plug on Windows 7 for consumers last October, and Windows 8.1 in September, OEMs could still release hardware with the software on board.

The software itself is not completely a Norwegian Blue. Vole has promised to “sort of” support it for a little while longer, it is just that no one will be able to buy new licences. Neither have mainstream support, but security updates will be provided until 14 January 14, 2020 for Windows 7, and January 10, 2023 for Windows 8.1.

All this means is that OEMS must make PCs with Windows 10. This should push its take up as the software is already on 400 million devices. This figure would have been impossible if Vole had not provided Windows 10 as an upgrade Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs. Take up of Windows 10 has slowed lately, mostly because people don't really want to pay for an upgrade.

Software outfit Microsoft has U-turned over its decision to kill off support for Intel Skylake processors running Windows 7 and 8.1 next year.

The move was about as popular as the Boston Strangler with its business clients who hoped to be able to squeeze out a few more years out of older operating systems. It was pressure from some of the bigger Redmond clients who apparently gave Microsoft a Chinese burn until it agreed to stop being so psychotic about upgrading punters to Windows 10. It is one thing to hack off consumers with nagging upgrades it is quite another to miff big business.

Microsoft is now offering an extension of support to July 2018. That is still 18 months short of the January 2020 official end-of-life for Windows 7, and the October 2023 date for Windows 8.1.

Microsoft claims that Windows 10 is the best solution for users of Skylake machines. Kaby Lake will be Windows 10 anyway

But things are still not going well for Redmond on the Windows 10 Mobile which finally got a release last week, four months late. Despite promises in November 2014 that all Lumia handsets would support Windows Mobile 10, shedloads of handsets won't.

Even Blu Win JR LTE, which was advertising itself as upgradable to Windows 10 will not get any upgrade which should miff anyone who bought one. It seems that Microsoft really is scoring own goal after own goal when it comes to getting Windows 10 mobile out. At the moment it has to use every tool it has in its position to get a user base, but every time it just hacks more people off.

In a rather authoritarian, sweeping effort to increase its worldwide Windows 10 install base, Microsoft has announced it will end support for operating systems older than Windows 10 on newer chipset platforms, including Intel’s Skylake, in a year and a half from now, and that Windows 10 will be the only supported Windows OS on new chipset platforms going forward in 2016.

Yesterday, the company updated its hardware support policy, which now states, “Going forward, as new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that time for support. This enables us to focus on deep integration between Windows and the silicon, while maintaining maximum reliability and compatibility with previous generations of platform and silicon. Windows 10 will be the only supported Windows platform on Intel’s upcoming 14nm Kaby Lake silicon, Qualcomm’s 14nm MSM8996 silicon (Snapdragon 820 SoC), and AMD’s upcoming 28nm Bristol Ridge APU silicon.”

In other words, if you purchase a new device later this year with an Intel Core 7000 Series (14nm Kaby Lake) CPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC or AMD socket AM4-based Bristol Ridge APU, you will only be receiving official support from Microsoft for its Windows 10 operating system.

The announcement also applies to SoCs from Qualcomm, Samsung, and others that power many of the latest Windows 10 tablets and ultrabooks. Through July 17, 2017, Intel Skylake-based devices on the company's "supported list" will continue to support Windows 7, Windows 8.0 and Windows 8.1. Microsoft says "during the 18-month support period, these systems should be upgraded to Windows 10 to continue receiving support after the period ends."

In the blog post, Microsoft emphasized Windows 7’s decade-old platform architecture and some of the challenges it brings for hardware manufacturers to update their drivers to support and emulate the OS.

“Windows 7 was designed nearly 10 years ago before any x86/x64 SOCs existed. For Windows 7 to run on any modern silicon, device drivers and firmware need to emulate Windows 7’s expectations for interrupt processing, bus support, and power states- which is challenging for WiFi, graphics, security, and more. As partners make customizations to legacy device drivers, services, and firmware settings, customers are likely to see regressions with Windows 7 ongoing servicing.”

Windows 7 will continue to be supported for security, reliability and compatibility through January 14, 2020 on previous generation silicon. Likewise, Windows 8.1 will receive the same support through January 10, 2023.

Microsoft has already claimed that negative side effects of using an older OS over Windows 10 are already quite tangible. “Compared to Windows 7 PCs, Intel Skylake when combined with Windows 10 enables up to 30x better graphics and 3x the battery life – with the unmatched security of Credential Guard utilizing silicon supported virtualization,” says Terry Myerson, Executive Vice President of the Windows and Devices Group.

“Credential Guard” is Microsoft’s new virtualization-based security mechanism that stores Windows and other login credentials into a virtualized area in hardware away from the main operating system. This prevents credential attack theft techniques used in many targeted attacks from successfully obtaining any confidential user credential information in the Windows 10 Enterprise operating system. Data stored by the new “isolated LSA” environment is protected using virtualization-based security and is not accessible to the rest of the operating system.

Nevertheless, Microsoft understands that many individuals and company employees are in the market for new devices and do not necessarily want Windows 10 to begin with. As such, the company says it will publish a list of specific new Intel Skylake-based devices for 2015 and 2016 that will run Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. “This approach ensures our customers can upgrade now to new devices their employees will love while preparing for a Windows 10 upgrade.”

Microsoft’s Windows operating system lifecycle support page can be found here.

Special note to our readers: Use extreme caution with Windows 10 privacy settings when upgrading to the new operating system

Microsoft employs telemetry, background data collection like never beforeWith any system upgrade to Windows 10, we always advise our readers to use extreme caution when understanding Windows 10's new user privacy settings, and to ensure that PCs installed with or upgraded to Windows 10 are thoroughly tweaked and optimized for an NSA-free, telemetry-free operating system experience.

As some of our readers already know, many of the privacy options in Windows 10 raise a huge red flag pointing right to the backend of the NSA, leaving millions of people unaware that they're basically enabling a high-profile keylogger on their PCs. For example, under "Express Settings," one of the options enabled by default is the following:

"Send typing and inking data to Microsoft to improve the recognition and suggestion platform."

In English, that basically means every key you touch on your keyboard gets sent to Microsoft and potentially the U.S. government for "improving basic Microsoft services."

In addition, there is a new telemetry system called "Asimov" which can be used to monitor the usage of any Windows 10 computer in real time. Basically, if you agree to use Windows 10, you agree to let Microsoft monitor your computer at any time, for any reason, and to share the data they gather with their trusted partners.

After the massive U.S. government surveillance leak from Edward Snowden in 2013, it's really no secret what the corporation is up to these days.

There is a short guide on the Microsoft Forum Network with six simple steps on how to completely remove all traces of background telemetry and basic data collection in Windows 10. Steps include disabling all settings in the "Settings -> Privacy" submenu, deleting a list of Scheduled Tasks through Command Prompt, changing telemetry values in the Group Policy Editor, manually disabling telemetry entries in the Registry Editor, and modifying the System32 "hosts" file to blacklist Microsoft's common "phone home" servers and IP addresses. Additionally, we also recommend running TotalDefense's free, run-once PrivacyShield utility to identify any of five major privacy settings that should always be plugged in Windows 10.

The folks over at Neowin have recently reported that Microsoft’s latest operating system is quickly approaching a large installation base worldwide and should eventually overtake Windows 8.1 as the world’s second most dominant operating system (behind Windows 7) sometime later this year.

StatCounter’s Global Stats for Operating Systems installed worldwide show Microsoft Windows 10 climbing from less than one third of one percent market share in July 2015 to almost 11 percent market share at the end of December 2015. In comparison, Windows 8.1 started with less than one third of one percent market share at launch in October 2013 and reached almost 11 percent in November 2014. In other words, it has taken Windows 10 just five months to do what Windows 8.1 did in thirteen.

The reality of Microsoft’s success with the new OS doesn’t come off to some as a story filled with flowers and roses, however. The company has been criticized for changing the “Upgrade to Windows 10” notification prompt on their screens by removing the option to opt-out of the upgrade. During the Build 2015 conference, the Windows team announced that their internal goal is to have Windows 10 on over 1 billion devices within two to three years after launch (July 2015).

Microsoft Marketing Chief Chris Capossela has argued that the company is trying to reduce OS fragmentation in the install base by getting as many users as possible to upgrade to the new operating system. He claims Windows 10 is “free for anybody who has a Windows 7 or 8 machine. You can call that freemium if you want, but that was a decision, [and] we did not take that decision lightly.”

Regardless of Microsoft’s ambitious Windows install base strategy, it seems that the majority of users are taking the bait and either upgrading from Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 via the free upgrade path or simply doing a Clean Installation on both BIOS and UEFI systems of all types.

Microsoft has released the Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL, two new budget-friendly additions to its Windows Phone range.

While there have been shedloads of lower-end Lumias these beasties have bigger screens which makes them more useful.

The 5-inch Lumia 640 and 5.7-inch 640 XL, is selling direct from Microsoft in the UK.

The Lumia 640 is priced at £169.99 on the Microsoft Store, although it's currently available only in orange or black.

The spec is pretty impressive for the price. There is a 5-inch ClearBlack IPS LCD with HD (1280x720px) resolution and Corning Gorilla Glass 3, a Quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with a 1GB RAM.

It has 8GB onboard storage (plus microSD support up to 128GB) and a backside illuminated 8MP rear camera with LED flash and 1080p video recording.

The 640 and 640 XL are the first handsets to launch with Windows Phone 8.1 Update 2 onboard.

The Lumia 640 and 640 XL are also the first handsets to come with a free one-year Office 365 Personal subscription for your PC, worth £59.99; previously, this offer had been available exclusively on small Windows tablets and entry-level notebooks.

After a slump in the use of Windows XP, it appears that some daft people are re-installing it, even as they walk away from Windows 7.

Statcounter has Windows 7 dipping a little to 54.13 per cent and Netmarketshare has it up 0.07 per cent to 55.99 per cent of detected desktops. Both outfits have Windows 7 below highs recorded in 2014. Windows 8.1 is up from 10.04 per cent in January to 10.49 per cent in February on Netmarketshare's numbers, and from 14.27 per cent to 14.78 per cent according to Statcounter.

However what is alarming is that Windows XP use is starting to increase again – making it the herpes of operating systems. Statcounter had it up from 11.99 per cent to 12.23 percent. Netmarketshare has it edging up from 18.93 per cent to 19.15 per cent.

Those figures have Windows XP growing only a little more slowly than Windows 8.1! This is based on the traffic as it hits web servers. It is possible that someone is building banks of old XP machines to hit internet websites, but surely there are better ways to do that.

MINIX showed the MINIX NEP Z64 back in September, but the new device was not available until today. MINIX is well known for its Android small form factor PCs such as the Minix Neo X8 H, however, the NEO Z64 is different because it is based on Intel’s Android Bay Trail 22nm silicon.

This mini-PC can run 64-bit Windows 8.1 or Android. Most devices ships with Android 4.4.4 out of the box and there is an option to install Windows 8.1. Some etailers will sell it with Windows 8.1 out of the box. The machine is powered by an Intel Z3735F 64-bit processor with 2MB of cache and a Turbo clock of 1.83GHz. It comes with Intel HD Graphics and supports Full HD 1080p playback. The Atom Z3735F has four cores and four treads, with a base clock of 1.33GHz and it has an SDP (Scenario Design Power) of 2.2W.

The MINIX NEO Z64 comes with 2GB DDR3L memory and 32GB of eMMC storage. If you crave more space, there is a microSD slot. It has HDMI 1.4 for video output, 10/100 Mbits LAN, headphone jack and a power DC IN on the rear.

The side hides the power button, microSD slot and two USB 2.0 slots. We know that you would want to see USB 3.0 there, but the chipset lacks USB 3.0 support. The Neo Z64 comes with an IR receiver and a remote. The machine has single band 802.11n wireless card and antenna.

Media centre fans will like the fact that MINIX NEO Z64 comes with support for XMBC.

Finally we come to the price. Back im September, company officials told Fudzilla that they plan to price the MINIX NEO Z64 at around $129, but first listings show the street price is a bit higher. The MINIX NEO Z64 is available on Geekbuying.com and it looks you can buy it with preinstalled Windows 8.1 for $174.9 here, and while Android version is cheaper and costs $144.9 here.

The Windows 8.1 launch didn’t get much attention, which probably has something to do with the fact that it’s basically Windows 8 done right. However, users of AMD APUs could have a good reason to celebrate.

According to AMD’s senior marketing manager Clarice Simmons, Windows 8.1 is a lot better than Windows 8 when it comes to harnessing the potential of AMD silicon. Writing in her blog, Simmons said the new OS could deliver performance gains of up to 9.5 percent on some PCs based on AMD APUs.

However, her numbers are for the A10-6800K and the 9.5 percent gain only applies to machines with an outdated video driver. With the same driver, the difference is actually 3.5 percent, which still isn’t bad but it’s not nearly as good as 9.5 percent.

“Our work with Microsoft includes development on the essential operating system "plumbing" that enables Windows to directly leverage AMD technology in order to run more efficiently. The two companies also cooperate on the development and tuning of the latest AMD video drivers,"wrote Simmons.

"Of course AMD's fast CPU and GPU cores contribute to high performance, but having software that is optimized to take advantage of the AMD hardware architecture is a significant advantage. Tuning our device drivers to simultaneously suit AMD hardware, software applications, and Windows 8.1 makes systems more streamlined.”

Simmons also pointed out that AMD Wireless Display works better on Windows 8.1, due to better architectural implementation and support for Miracast, better ecosystem support and new solutions that enable the OS to tap low latency display encode paths available in Radeons.

Futuremark has released a new version of PCMark 8 that brings support for Windows 8.1 as well as fixes some issues noticed and reported with the previous version.

The biggest update for the 1.1.1111 version of the PCMark 8 is the support for Windows 8.1 and Internet Explorer 11. In addition to the new support, the new version of the PCMark 8 also brings updated SystemInfo v4.21, more detailed hardware monitoring graphics, faster SystemInfo scanning as well as a couple of new options in the OpenCL testing tab.

Unfortunately, the PCMark 8 is still only available as the Professional Edition with a US $1,495 price tag and there is still no word on the Advanced Edition that should cost US $49.95 or the Basic one that should be free.

AMD has officially released the new AMD Catalyst 13.9 driver, AMD's first logo certified driver for Windows 8.1 that includes WDDM 1.3 support for bunch of AMD products including Kabini, Richland, Trinity and Temash APUs, as well as AMD's Radeon HD 8000, 7000, 6000, and 5000 series graphcis cards.

Although it is AMD's first logo certified driver for Windows 8.1 it does not include support for AMD Crossfire Frame Pacing or the very latest Crossfire optimization nor the additional performance improvements and fixes found in the AMD Catalyst 13.10 Beta driver.

In case you missed it earlier, the Catalyst 13.10 Beta driver on the other hand brings improved Crossfire profiles for Rome Total War 2, Saints Row 4, Metro Last Light as well as a number of frame pacing improvements in games like Tomb Raider, Metro Last Light, Sniper Elite, World of Warcraft, Max Payne 3 and Hitman Absolution. The Catalyst 13.10 Beta driver also resolves some issues seen with previous Catalyst drivers.

As always, you can download the new AMD Catalyst 13.9 certified driver here while the 13.10 Beta one can be found here.